Indian national is 38th shooting casualty

"AN INDIAN national was recorded as the 38th casualty in a spate of shooting incidents in Davao City after he was gunned down by unidentified armed men at Old Emars Beach Resort, Times Beach, Matina Aplaya around 3:30 a.m. Friday.

Superintendent Julius Silagan, Talomo police chief, identified the victim as Ramandeep Singhgill, 30, resident of Matina Aplaya and a native of Punjab, India.

Investigation conducted by Talomo police revealed that the victim was already bathing on his own blood when he was found by nearby residents at around 8 a.m.

Based on the accounts of the residents in the area, they heard a gunshot around 3:30 a.m.

Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) responded in the scene but was not able to recover any empty shell or slug coming from the assailant's firearm. Soco, however, recovered a .357 revolver just one meter away from the victim, but police are yet to confirm if the firearm is owned by the victim.

Police suspect that the motive of the killing may have been a past grudge. Police are also looking into the possibility that the victim may have also been robbed and he tried to fight back.

Singhgill is the 38th victim of shooting since July 1. He became part of the 32 victims who were killed by unidentified suspects. The other six slain were suspects who resisted arrest in police operations.

Police are now conducting further investigation for the identification and apprehension of the suspect."


http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/local-news/2013/08/10/indian-national-38th-shooting-casualty-297076

I am able to provide a little more information:

As you may know, there's a form of money-lending known as "5-6" on account of the fact that for every five Pesos you borrow, you must pay back six - that's 20% interest per month - and this is pretty much the only form of borrowing available to the poorer Filipinos. It's a very lucrative business and it's well-known that many of these 5-6 money-lenders are Indians and they are indeed often armed - illegally because no foreigner can legally own or carry a firearm. It's very much a family business and most of the Indians who are engaged in it are here originally as students who then become "undocumented aliens" who live in the "twilight zone" of vehicles with blacked-out windows from which they conduct their business. As the business expands, they send for another member of the (extended) family.

The Police has apparently recovered evidence to suggest his occupation was that of a money-lender and their current theory is that Singhgill got caught up in a turf war between rival 5-6'ers - probably also Indian.

It is also worth noting that as of last Friday, the Philippine equivalent of ACPO has sanctioned a shoot-to-kill policy should the Police detect someone who acts as though he might pose a threat as a suicide bomber and who refuses to obey Police instructions. This is a temporary measure which applies nationwide and is in response to the current wave of BIFF bombings and attacks.

Thanks; that's very helpful.

The BIFF business has escalated very quickly following the original bomb in Cagayan de Oro; I imagine that they have been able to recurit malcontents from both the mainstream factions - MNLF and MILF?

38 seems rather a lot, since July 1st evidently.

The Davao Death Squads:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davao_death_squads

Well, Davao is a big city; it has about twice the population of Cebu, for example. Only six of those killings were "whilst resisting arrest"...

I found two very different figures for the national homicide rate; one suggested that it is is a bit over 5 per 100,000 people per year and the other thought it was 21 per 100,000 per year.

If the former, giving Davao a population of 1.6M we would be expecting (16 x 5) murders in Davao, annually, or 80 murders a year.
If the latter, giving Davao a population of 1.6M we would be expecting (16 x 21) murders in Davao, annually, or 336 murders a year or 28 murders a month...

However, that cannot be the end of the story - Davao is close to the ARMM and, as such, is affected by political violence, in a way hat a university town like Dumaguete or Los Banos is not. It's a bit like comparing Belfast and Cambridge.

Sounds like the Wild West, to me.

The DDS is largely urban myth and used to explain-away corpses of criminals that would from time to time be found around the city.

The SunStar's reporting is typically vague: there may have been 38 shooting incidents since July 1, but I do question whether they all resulted in death. Life is cheap here - buy a cow or have someone killed, the cost is about the same - and as the law does not serve average Filipinos particularly well, some may resort to an extra-judicial means of settling scores.

Regarding BIFF, it was formed out of the MILF in 2008 and is led by Ameril Umbra Kato, the Philippines' most wanted.

"Extrajudicial killings are not uncommon in Davao City and many of the victims were individuals with police records. Most of the murders are blamed to the so-called Davao Death Squads, but human rights groups have also blamed the police and military for some of the killings of political activists and civilian suspected as communist rebels in Davao and nearby provinces."

See more at: http://www.manilatimes.net/rights-bloc-bats-for-probe-of-transport-leader-murder/26727/

Those of us who live here place very little credence in what's reported in the newspapers - and with good reason. Many stories are single-sourced and published without any fact-checking; stories based on rumour and supposition are portrayed as fact and quotations published as part of the story were rarely given to the reporter in a face-to-face interview but emanate from text messages.

What about the history?

"In its country report on the human-rights situation in the Philippines, the U.S. State Department singled out Davao City as one of two cities (the other is Cebu) for the increase in summary killings in 2005, with 147 such murders that year, compared to 104 in 2004.

The U.S. State Department says state security forces committed serious human-rights violations in 2005. (REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV)
“Summary killings by vigilante groups in two major cities increased, and local officials seemed to condone and even encourage them,” said the annual report, which was released on Wednesday. (Cebu officials had acknowledged in the past that they took inspiration from Davao City for their iron-hand approach to crime. According to reports, summary executions of criminals — many of them petty criminals and minors — in other cities in the Visayas, as well as Digos City and Tagum City in Southern Mindanao, have likewise increased.

Aside from summary killings, the U.S. human-rights reported noted the increasing number of activists killed, allegedly by government forces and the unresolved murders of journalists."

http://davaotoday.com/main/2006/03/11/rise-in-summary-killings-davao-singled-out-in-us-report/

"This two-part story investigates the killing of teenagers in Davao City. The teenagers are casualties in the city's unorthodox, if brutal, campaign, against crime. As davao-based journalist Carlos H. Conde writes, NGOs have tallied 20 young people age 18 and below have been knifed or gunned to death there since March 1999.
The writer begins with the story of Clarita Alia, who is spending a mournful Christmas this year, as it has been just weeks since her 14-year old son was killed by unknown men. Two of Alia's other sons, one 18, the other 16, have been similarly summarily executed in the last two years.

Killings such as these have the tacit support of many Davaoeños, who see them as the price that has to be paid to keep the city safe. But child-rights NGOs say the killings have not had an impact on juvenile crime — in fact statistics show that they are increasing — and that they do not address the root of the problem, which is poverty and family abuse.

Clarita Alia's story, which is told in both parts, shows how a family broken apart by poverty and physical violence provides a fertile breeding ground for juvenile crime.But as davao ity mayor Rodrigo Duterte argues, "if we all go into a social study of poverty, we will all be killed.""

http://pcij.org/stories/2002/davao.html

"MYTHS and complacency - when it comes to the Davao Death Squad (DDS) killings, that is what citizens of Davao City have been living with. But a decade and more than 800 unsolved murders later, can the authorities really deny that a death squad exists? A new report by Human Rights Watch, "You Can Die Any Time: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao" proves that a death squad exists in Davao City , and debunks the myths and justifications that local officials have relied on to avoid any serious investigation into the killings."

http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/07/15/davao-citizens-should-reject-death-squad-killings

The UK government advises against all but essential travel to Davao, echoed by many "western" governments. The history of Davao in the press suggests that is run like the wild west and Markham says its a wonderful place to be. Which does one go with?

The UK Government advises against all travel to the Zamboanga Peninsula and the islands to the south and against all but essential travel to the rest of Mindanao - advice that I have myself ignored. Nothing specific about Davao.

They appear to include Davao. They don't give it dispensation as a haven of peace, calm and tranquility or a shining beacon of light in the wilderness.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/83...-to-make-davao-city-base-for-drone-operations

Quite interesting. Suggests that he is not quite such a Rambo type.

lol .... Obviously this guy has a fine moral compass.

"DFAT also urged Australian citizens to “reconsider” travel to eastern Mindanao, including Bukidnon, Camiguin, Misamis Oriental, Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur.
The Australian government cited “very high levels of violent crime and the high threat of terrorist attack” in these provinces."


http://globalnation.inquirer.net/79...zens-to-avoid-travelling-to-parts-of-mindanao

I can just imagine a retirement of sunshine, blue skies, cool san migs and stray bullets whistling overhead. :dream:

That's a pretty fair description of retirement to any part of the Philippines!

I wish I had taken a picture of the temporary street sign at the intersection across the road from the Manila Hotel on the Intramuros side which read

DANGER

COUP IN PROGRESS

BEWARE LOW FLYING BULLETS

(I kid you not - it was there!)

If you prefer to believe ten or twelve year old press reports of dubious accuracy over the word of someone actually living in Davao City right now, then that's up to you. I'm not even going to bother to provide you with links to articles showing how Davao is repeatedly nominated as being one of the most liveable cities in Asia because, quite frankly, I'm quite happy not to encourage too many foreigners here; Januarius will know why I say that.

Davao is the weekend home to many rich and famous personalities from Manila including two senior Supreme Court Justices, TV and recording stars including Ruffa Gutierez who I've bumped into on a couple of occasions whilst dining at the Marco Polo hotel. Would they maintain homes and regularly come here if it were, as you suggest, "the wild west"?

As for the Foreign Office Travel Advisory, it has been the same for years. Not that anyone from either the British or American Embassies actually come here, because they don't. Britain had a Consulate here until around 2007 when the HonCon retired but now receives no intelligence from "boots on the ground". The Advisory isn't about perceived lawlessness in the City - Manila has shootings, muggings, and car-jackings just about every day of the week: does the Foreign Office advise against travel to that city? No of course it doesn't. There is a NPA presence well to the north of the city, mainly (but not exclusively) in the pineapple-growing areas of Bukidnon but they target corrupt public officials and not ordinary citizens or foreigners.

Or maybe this is the description of Davao you'd prefer to believe:

Davao City is the carbuncle on the arse of the Philippines where they're wedded to fifty year old Jeepneys belching thick black smoke; traffic congestion is the worst in the country. The levels of Particulates, Carbon Monoxide, Sulphur Dioxide and Ozone are the highest for any urbanised area in the world. There are no controls regulating industrial pollution and no effective network of sewers, the city's water supply has unacceptably high levels of bacteria and heavy metal contamination. Air and water pollution are responsible for denuding the city of vegetation, no trees, plants or grasses can grow here. Crime is rampant and drive-by shootings and extra-judicial executions are not only commonplace but officially sanctioned. The average age expectancy is 40 - if pollution and water-borne diseases don't get you, a bullet will. The government, desperate to rid itself of the problems associated with the city, have offered to cede it to Bangsamoro and the Sultan of Sulu but neither party is interested, the city is too poor; Abu Sayyaf has yet to respond.

History is the key to the future, is it not? Or is it only when it suits?

From Wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davao_death_squads

I have 3 sources of information on Davao

1] Various government advisories across the western world.

2] Umpteen newspaper reports, both local and national and international

3] Davao according to Markham.

Which do I take on board? All one wants is a balanced perspective. Tell it how it is. It's pretty obvious there are issues in Davao. Why try and sweep them under the carpet. It helps no one.

That would be Metro Manila

You can either take the first three paragraphs in my reply above or the last: whichever brings you joy and happiness.

There were serious issues in Davao ten and more years ago but the city today is very different now. The recent spate of shootings is a blip and the number quoted by the SunStar has been contested by local law enforcement. This is not the UK, there is no Press Complaints Commission and the newspapers do not publish retractions or corrections to their stories - and they frequently get it wrong!

Before I visited Davao for the first time, I too was sceptical, I too had read pretty horrific press reports but I came here after a lengthy conversation with an Australian (Professor of a Hong Kong University) who'd just returned to Cebu after a two-week visit to Davao. My wife and I spent a week here and we both agreed that this is the place we wish to live and bring-up our children.